Title: Negotiating the Nature and
1Negotiating the Nature and Boundaries of a
Collaborative CETL
2Aims of CIPeL
- To produce interprofessional learning objects,
learning activities assessment tools to address
interprofessional capabilities - Research and develop pedagogic strategies
models related to e-approaches to IPL - Disseminate engage internal and external
stakeholders with e-approaches to achieving
interprofessional capabilities.
3Structure of CIPeL
Core Team
Secondees 2 Phd students Student interns
Service users SIG Critical friends
4Researching the collaboration
- Exploration of shared or collective understanding
of the team - Meads Ashcroft (2005) framework used as a basis
for a report/respond (RR) questionnaire
(Stronach McClure, 1997)
5Broad research questions
- who do we need to work with now and in the
future? - what kind of relationship do we want?
- how do we expect the relationship to operate?
- is our experience of the relationship
satisfactory? - how well do organisational factors support the
relationship?
6Who do we need to work with now in the future?
- New partners recognized
- as having potential to
- alter collaboration
- Emphasis on team
- cohesion planning to
- avoid risks to the
- collaboration
- One another in team,
- evaluators, students, full
- professional range of
- staff, service users,
- practitioners, partner
- Institution, other CETLs
- national/international
- colleagues
7What kind of relationship do we want?
- Fosters social presence of members
- Built on trust mutual respect
- Characterised by reflexivity
- Regular face-to-face contact, shared
responsibility a team approach - Capitalises on individual strengths
- Beneficial to both institutions
- Fosters innovation
8 How do we expect the relationship to operate?
- Regular communication - use of technology
- Defined areas of responsibility, within a
framework of objectives regular review - Shared objectives between team members????
- With equity, transparency honesty
- Observing high standards of scholarship
- In an informed way by understanding how to make
the collaboration work
9Is our experience of the relationship
satisfactory?
- Social presence good but collaborative working
threatened by other work commitments - Logistics impede collaboration
- Collaboration slowed when policies in two
institutions need to be negotiated -
collaboration between individuals can speed
things up - Team members playing to their strengths
- Allowed increased insight understanding of
organisational structures, policies procedures,
change culture, curriculum approaches
10 How well do organisational factors support the
relationship?
- They do not always support collaboration.. but
- Corporate Partnership Group mechanism
- Senior management support evident
- Target influential individuals
- Benefit from selecting best bits from policies in
either institution - Looser structures greater flexibility allow
greater innovation possibly greater potential
to promote institutional change
11 Kezars Stages of Collaboration (2005)
- 1 building commitment involves
- A set of values about collaborative work,
external pressure learning about benefits of
collaboration - 2 commitment depends on
- Senior management support, rethinking
institutional mission, networks leadership that
push collaboration - 3 sustaining involves
- Integrating structures redesigning processes
to facilitate collaboration, rewarding
collaborators creating networks to overcome
barriers resistance to new processes and
structures
12The CETL Vision
- vibrant, dynamic entities with a visible
- presence in their own institution(s),
- engaging directly purposively with student
- learning and serving as a catalyst for
- change (HEFCE, p.5)
13Excellence and Collaboration?
- Teaching excellence - a contested concept
(Skelton, 2004) - associated with individuals each of whom come
with their - own expertise, career aspirations reputations
(Watson - Maddison, 2005)
- Is the excellence bestowed upon us something that
we can claim equally? - Does this create tensions between individual
aspirations collaboration?
14Collaboration and Competition?
- Collaboration as a means of mitigating potential
competition (Becher Trowler, 2001) - Does collaboration hold greater potential that
individualistic goals? - Do research reputations complicate collaboration?
- Do we as collaborative partners have something to
offer one another that might make us sustainable?
15 Beware!!!
Collaboration threatens to undermine the
singularity of institutional identity - creates
tension between reaping the rewards (most often
financial) of working with collaborative partners
and promoting ones own institutional standing
Forces that prompt institutional distinctiveness
independent identity cannot be underestimated
(Kong, 2003)
16 Looking to the future
- Need to acknowledge threats
- Need to see progress on Kezars stages of
collaboration as provisional - Need to be reflexive about how new partners might
impact on alter collaboration
17Looking to the future
- Need to consider sustainability plan sooner
rather than later - Need to focus on our achievements and work to
minimize risks to our - collaboration
- Need to sustain
- relationships
Excellence collaboration go hand in hand if
you are determined enough
18References
- Becher, T. Trowler, P. R. (2001) Academic Tribes
and Territories. 2nd Edition. - Buckingham, SRHE and Open University.
- Higher Education Council for England (HEFCE)
(2004) Centres for Excellence in Teaching - and Learning Invitation to bid for funds. HEFCE
- Kezar, A. (2005) Redesigning for Collaboration
Within Higher Education Institutions An - Exploration into the Developmental Process.
Research in Higher Education, 46(7), pp. - 831-860.
- Kong, L. (2003) People, politics, policy the
(im)possibilities of institutional
collaborations. - Environment and Planning, 35, pp. 1143-1150.
- Meads, G. Ashcroft, J (2005) The Case for
Interprofessional Collaboration in Health and - Social Care. London. Blackwell Science and CAIPE.
- Skelton, A. (2004) Understanding teaching
excellence in higher education a critical - evaluation of the National Teaching Fellowships
Scheme. Studies in Higher Education, - 29(4), pp. 451-468.
- Stronach, I. McClure, M. (1997) Educational
Research Undone. Buckingham, Open - University.
- Watson D. Maddison, E. (2005) Managing
Institutional Self-Study. Buckingham, Open - University.